The present invention relates to a display control apparatus, display control method, and an information recording medium. Particularly, the present invention relates to a display control apparatus and display control method, which control the display of video on a display panel that is placed in its inactive state when not displaying video, on the one hand, and is placed in its active state when displaying video, and to an information recording medium in which a program for the display control is recorded.
Recently, a variety of audio devices mounted on vehicles have been commercially available, and the need of displaying video on vehicles has also increased. Such video includes images of television broadcasting, information recorded in an optical disc (for instance, images like map information recorded in a CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory) or DVD-ROM used as part of a navigation system), and movie information recorded in a recording medium such as a read-only DVD.
In order to meet such need, various kinds of on-vehicle video display apparatus have been developed. Of these, there is provided a video display apparatus in which a display panel (a video displaying unit) is retracted in a dash board when not displaying video, and is placed in a certain video-visible position from the dashboard only when displaying video. This allows the limited space of a vehicle to be used effectively and prevents the display panel from deforming due to solar heat or others, thus protecting the display panel from being deteriorated in performance. Generally, this type of video display apparatus is called an “in-dash monitor”.
The in-dash monitor has, for example, such a construction that its display panel starts to move from its in inactive state, i.e., its received or retracted state to its active state, i.e., its extended state in response to the turn on of the vehicle ignition switch. Normally, it needs about 3 to 5 seconds to move the display panel from the inactive state to the active state.
By contrast, when the display panel currently placed in its active state is moved to its retracted state, the movement of the display panel is started in response to the turn off of the vehicle ignition switch.
However, in the conventional in-dash monitor, displaying video on the display panel is started simultaneously with the start to its active state. Thus, during a period of time of about 3 to 5 seconds in the beginning of displaying the video, the video will be displayed in the state that a user is unable to look it clearly. This leads to a problem that a certain period from the beginning of the video is always blind for a user.
As for retracting the conventional display panel from its active state, the display panel is moved to its retracted state responsively to the turn off of the ignition key. Consequently, even when the display of video recorded in an optical disc came to an end, the display panel is kept extended, unless the ignition key is turned off. This causes another problem that the above-mentioned performance protection to the display panel is not fully attained.